


what i would do to get into your head

by lostin_space



Series: Malex Week 2020❤️️ [2]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, High School, Huddling For Warmth, Malex Week 2020, mentions of bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25259428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostin_space/pseuds/lostin_space
Summary: Alex really would like to get Michael's attention.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: Malex Week 2020❤️️ [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828189
Comments: 21
Kudos: 111
Collections: Roswell New Mexico ▶ Michael Guerin / Alex Manes





	what i would do to get into your head

**Author's Note:**

> day 2 of malex week: trope day
> 
> here's my very contrived version of huddling for warmth trope
> 
> as per usual, if i missed any tags, let me know

Michael had been completely and utterly terrified for the entire day.

“What if they bully me like in bad high school movies and throw me in the dumpster?”

“Michael, it’s music class. I’m almost 99% sure they won’t do that,” Isobel said, pushing his backpack all the way there. 

As much as Michael was glad he tested out of the alien-specific power training classes, he was terrified to be the only one in an entirely human class. He knew it was going to be difficult to make friends. Sure, they might talk to him and be normal, but he would know they didn’t mean it. 

“Can’t you just come with me?” he whined. Isobel smiled and shook her head.

“Sorry, we can’t all be geniuses or prodigies like you,” Isobel mused, kissing the side of his face and shoving him into the room.

Part of Michael expected everyone to look over at him, to stare and gawk, but they didn’t. Instead, they went on with their day. Michael took a deep breath and nodded. He could do this. He could.

Michael had technically been able to join music since his sophomore year, but he’d gotten scared both then and his junior year and chose to work in the library for his extra period. Which was fun and all, but he wanted to do music. He was passionate about music. He played three instruments and wanted to show it. But that was just difficult when some heavy anxiety weighed on his chest the way it did.

But, with the help of Isobel, Max, and his mother, he’d finally enrolled in music.

It did help that Alex Manes was also in the class. He, while not alien, was an outcast in the purest form. He was antagonistic and brutal and… easily one of the hottest people to ever grace the universe. Michael had never actually spoken to him, but he’d seen how he parted the hallways like the red sea with his presence alone. He’d seen him get in fights in defense of other aliens. He’d even seen him smile. That image seemed burned into his brain. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Michael sat in the far corner by himself, hoping not to bring too much attention to himself. He would happily blend into the background. Except, that almost immediately backfired when Alex Manes himself walked right up to him. He was even more gorgeous up close.

“You’re in my spot,” Alex said, staring him down with his dark-lined eyes. Michael’s eyes slowly widened. He thought about pointing out that it was the first day of school and there was no way he had a specific seat. But, of course, he couldn’t find those words.

“Sorry,” Michael said, fumbling to grab his bag as quickly as he could and move out of his way. He moved over four chairs, leaving three between them so he wouldn’t bother him. Alex watched him with a raised eyebrow. Michael tried to ignore him.

Eventually, the teacher, Mrs. Wilks, walked in and immediately began talking. Michael listened as intently as he could, trying to ignore the way Alex never seemed to stop staring. His eyes burned into the side of Michael’s face and sufficiently made it impossible to focus.

Which is how the next three goddamn weeks went.

Michael would struggle to pay attention every single day because of Alex and it got to the point Mrs. Wilks pulled him to the side to make sure Alex wasn’t bullying him. And he wasn’t. He was just staring. 

“Michael,” Mrs. Wilks said at the beginning of class, “Why don’t you come up here and play for our warm-ups.”

Michael stared at her with wide, reluctant eyes. He knew she was just doing that to get him away from Alex, but that would just get more eyes on him. He was fine with just Alex’s, but everyone else?

But, Michael was compliant to a fault and he found himself sitting in front of the piano.

He played for warm-ups and even roughly sight-read the pieces they were doing. He was rusty, but it worked well enough. By the time it was almost over, he found that he was actually comfortable playing in front of that many people.

"Wow, thank you, Michael," Mrs. Wilk's praised as the class came to an end. She clapped and basically forced the class to join in which was uncomfortable to say the least. Thankfully, the bell rang shortly after and the room cleared out within a matter of seconds.

Or, almost cleared out.

Michael had turned to put his sheet music back in his bag when the piano bench creaked with the weight of another body. He looked over his shoulder to see Alex Manes sitting there, straddling the bench and looking right at him. He didn't say a word and still, Michael's cheeks got hot. Alex smiled in response which just made his face burn even brighter.

"You're good," Alex said, "And you're also good at biology."

"I-I guess."

"No guessing, you're the only alien in that class and it's because you're ridiculously smart," he said. Michael had no idea what to say.

"Thank you?" he offered. Alex rolled his eyes.

"You wanna tutor me?" Alex asked. Michael's eyes went wide again. "Why do you always act so shocked when anyone talks to you? Like, you're not invisible." Michael was silent. "Well, do you wanna? I suck and you're the only person I think I could handle being in a room with for more than five minutes."

Michael swallowed harshly and Alex looked way too amused.

"B-But your dad," Michael said lamely. As hot as Alex Manes was, his father was a proud xenophobe. The mention wiped all amusement from Alex's face.

"There's a shed behind my house, no parents around, no distractions," Alex said, eyeing him, "I'll pay you."

"Um, yeah, sure, I can tutor you," Michael agreed. Alex nodded, standing up. The bench was bracketed by his knees still and his studded belt was all but right in Michael's face. It was pretty hard to focus on anything else.

"I'll meet you by your truck after school."

"Okay," Michael agreed lamely.

He watched Alex walk out of the class and tried not to think too hard about what he'd just agreed to.

Michael floated through the rest of the day on autopilot, his mind stuck on what was set to happen that evening. A tutoring session with Alex Manes. That was it. There was nothing weird or sketchy about it. It was simply tutoring. So why did it feel so goddamn nerve-wracking?

For his own wellbeing, he didn’t tell Isobel, but he did let his mother know that he was going to be home late because he was tutoring. He even typed out Jesse Manes’ name and didn’t send it, keeping it there just in case he needed to send it quickly. Was that too paranoid?

As Michael made his way towards his truck at the end of the day, he couldn’t help but immediately notice that Alex looked goddamn picturesque as he sat on the hood. It should’ve been disrespectful that he just took over his truck like that, but… damn. The angle of it all made his legs seem impossibly long in his skinny jeans as they hung over the edge. He was leaning back on his arms and the sun seemed to be beaming down just for him, his face turned towards the sky with his eyes closed. It only occurred to Michael at that moment that Alex knew which truck with his without even asking. Oh, he had feelings about that.

“Hi,” Michael said as he walked up to his car. Alex slowly opened his eyes and tilted his head towards Michael, not budging from his place on the hood. Michael’s whole body tensed up at that.

“It’s about to rain,” he said.

“Is it?”

“Yeah, can’t you smell it?” Alex asked, tilting his head back again and breathing in deep. Did he know how risque that looked? “It’s in the air.”

“Oh, uh, cool,” Michael said, clearing his throat and shifting awkwardly. Alex hopped off the hood of the truck and headed towards the passenger side door. 

“Let’s go.”

Michael couldn’t help but obey.

Apart from Alex’s whole  _ thing  _ was he seemed to make the conscious decision to optimize space. He had his leg pulled up to the seat, but his thighs spread far apart while his head laid back and occasionally gave directions to his house. Logically, Michael knew it was a power thing. Illogically, Michael was sure he wanted him to wreck from being distracted.

However, instead of wrecking, his truck started sputtering before slowly to a stop. Embarrassment flooded him and he looked over to Alex who just smiled.

“I can fix it,” Michael insisted. Alex smirked and nodded.

“I believe you.”

Michael quickly jumped out of the truck and Alex, for some reason, followed. He popped the hood and started tightening all of the cables around his battery and alternator and anywhere else for good measure. Alex was looking over his shoulder which made it infinitely harder to  _ locate  _ all the cables.

And then, to make it worse, it started sprinkling just like Alex had said. And then it very quickly started  _ storming.  _ Alex laughed, as the sky drenched them and made it even harder to try to tighten things. Michael grunted and jogged back to the driver's seat and turned the key but it still didn’t work. His battery was dead.

“You’re an alien!” Alex called to him over the sound of the rain, “Do your little electrical thing!”

“It’s not my specialty!” 

“I believe in you!”

It was a hollow thing, Michael knew that, but it made Michael feel like he could run a goddamn marathon. He started at Alex for a moment, watching as he spread his arms out wide and smiled up at the sky that covered him in rain. He was even more gorgeous than Michael ever could’ve imagined.

After double-checking that Alex wouldn’t be totally freaked out by him actually using his powers in front of him, Michael went back to the front of the car and tried to channel all of that energy under his skin and in his blood, his hand hovering over the battery. He took a couple of controlled breaths, just like his mom taught him, and just  _ tried.  _

A small bout of energy came from his palm and went to his car battery, ignoring the rain. He added a little telekinetic  _ umph  _ to turn the ignition and he grinned as the truck roared to life. Laughter bubbled out of him as he did so. It was the first time he had done something so useful with his powers. His mother always taught him not to rely on them, but… That felt good.

“I told you,” Alex said, suddenly way too close and, when Michael looked over his shoulder, he was  _ right there.  _ He was so close and looking at him and  _ smiling  _ and covered in rain. “You’re good.”

Michael felt chills douse his skin from head to toe, feeling frozen as he stared at him and basked in his praise. He almost forgot about the rain. Instead, his eyes followed a water droplet that traced over Alex’s impeccable cheekbones.

“You ready to go?” Alex asked, voice low and  _ right there.  _ Michael gulped.

“Yeah,” he agreed. Alex raised both his eyebrows suggestively and nodded his head towards the cab of the truck.

Michael dropped the hood and they both got back inside, sitting for a moment. It was going to be a bitch to dry his seats without a mildew smell and his shoes were going to be so goddamn squishy and his hair was going to be so gross, but Alex had laughed and he said he believed in him and, god, it made everything better.

Alex finished directing him to his house and then told him where to park so his dad wouldn’t ask questions before they both ran into the shed, laughing slightly. Michael had never felt so confident in his life than in those few seconds, even as the chill of being soaking wet set in.

Still, they sat side by side on the floor, their backs against the little bed in the corner. Michael was still buzzing with power which seemed to keep his own coldness at bay, but Alex was already starting to shiver a little bit as he rubbed his hands together. He eyed him a little as he pulled out his biology textbook (human biology only, alien biology had to be taught at home or, if you were lucky, a progressive sex ed teacher might give a run down).

“If you need to go inside and dry off, I don’t mind waiting,” Michael said. Alex looked at him with those big, intoxicating eyes.

“I’ll just get wet again coming back out here, don’t worry about it,” he said, leaning closer. Michael just nodded, looking back to his book.

“So, most of this is just a review,” Michael started.

Just like in class, Alex didn’t seem to be paying attention. His eyes were burning into the side of Michael’s head, intense as hell despite the fact he was shivering. Michael did his best to ignore it along with his own chill. However, he stopped being successful at that when Alex’s teeth started chattering.

“You’re cold,” Michael said dumbly. Alex grinned through it. His eyeliner and mascara was somehow still perfect even though his hair was plastered to his forehead and frizzy. He was as picturesque as always if you disregarded how cold he looked. 

“And you’re warm,” Alex said, leaning in until their sides were pressed together as much as he could. Michael’s mouth went dry. “You can share some body heat, can’t you?”

Michael felt his eyes widen as he realized what he was saying. Alex just kept that smile in full force. How the hell did he exist? More importantly, why was he even giving Michael the time of day? Of all the people in the world and beyond, Michael was the least worthy of that attention.

But, still, he let Alex come close. He even dared to drape his arms over his shoulders and Alex leaned in even closer, almost balling up to feed off his body heat. Alex’s eyes were on the textbook as he did so which somehow made it all the more exhilarating. This was okay. He was allowed to touch another boy like this. Not  _ just  _ another boy. Alex.

Michael’s eyes went back to the textbook to try and focus, but Alex’s eyes seemed to take that as a sign to go back to staring at his face.

“Right, so, uh,” Michael breathed, scanning the page for something that was more interesting than him. He failed. “I'm assuming you remember Punnett squares. Fun fact, my people’s DNA is a little different and instead of just dominant and recessive, we have a triple combination and the third goes into our power skill and specialty. So we have dominant, recessive, and regnant genes types. They mix the same way yours does, it’s just a little more complex.”

“How does that work for Punnett squares?” Alex asked, still shivering and his teeth chattering. It made Michael feel guilty for some reason, so he rubbed his arm in hopes some type of friction would help him warm up.

“My mom said it’s like they use capital letters, lowercase letters, and superscript letters that stand on their own,” Michael said, shrugging slightly.

Alex didn’t answer right away, breathing in deep as a chill shook him. Michael looked back at him and saw that his lips were starting to tint a little bit purple. He couldn’t even acknowledge how close they were, he was just concerned. He frowned and tried to remember if it was normal for humans to get so cold just by getting wet, but he didn’t actually know. The shed also didn’t have any heat, so maybe Alex had one of those deep-seated chills that were impossible to get rid of. Michael hadn't actually had one of those before.

“Hey,” Michael said softly, “You really need to go dry off or get under a blanket or something, you’re gonna get sick.”

“Warm me up,” Alex requested.

“I’m trying, but it’s not working,” Michael said back.

Alex looked at him in the eyes, his brows furrowed like he was trying to make sense of something that Michael wasn’t aware of. He looked all over his face for what felt like a million years before he leaned forward and pressed his icy lips to Michael’s. Bells seemed to ring in his mind, every inch of Michael trying to battle with the fact that he was both shocked and not shocked at all. It added up. But, still, how the hell did Michael get the pleasure of  _ his  _ attention?

Alex pulled away, but he didn’t go far.

“I am so confused,” Michael breathed. 

“Should I have asked first? Sorry,” Alex said, forcing a little laugh, but he genuinely seemed a little nervous. It was the first time Michael had  _ ever  _ seen him look nervous. “I just am really fucking intrigued by you.”

“I just…” Michael said, trailing off once he realized he didn’t really have anything to say. Nothing worth substance, anyway. Not when his mind was just on Alex.

Michael leaned back in just a little, meeting him in a kiss. Alex smiled against his lips and moved his hand up to his cheek. Pathetically, Michael was trying to remember the last time he kissed someone and it counted. He couldn’t actually come up with anything and, instead, focused on Alex and not being a terrible kisser.

“Warm me up,” Alex repeated against his lips, but this time the connotations to his words were so much different and Michael’s skin felt like it was on fire. 

He wasn’t quite sure how to be confident like Alex, but he fed off the request and let it play into his people-pleasing qualities. Michael kissed him deeper and moved his hand to the hem of his damp shirt, slipping beneath it to get a little skin on skin contact. Alex nodded in approval as he tilted his head and slid his fingers into Michael’s hair.

“Tell me if you wanna stop,” Alex told him. Michael couldn’t find a reason to want to.

It was a slow process of just kissing and touching and turning to face each other entirely. Alex, bold as ever, tugged Michael into his lap as he leaned against the bed. Michael grabbed the blanket off the bed and pulled it over them. Alex smiled as they huddled beneath it, pressing close to each other as Michael used his TK to tuck it in place so he could keep his hands beneath Alex's damp shirt. Skin to skin contact, right? They hid under the scratchy blanket, touching and breathing and rubbing and kissing and slowly undoing all the cold. 

It didn’t go further than that and it seemed like it actually was mainly for warmth, but the kissing was definitely for more than just warmth.

“I like you,” Alex told him, holding him close and still gliding his hand up and down his spine, “But you’re very unapproachable.”

“No, I’m not,” Michael laughed, shaking his head, “ _ You’re _ unapproachable. You can be scary sometimes.”

“Don’t let me scare you,” Alex shot back, sealing his statement with a kiss as his hand squeezed Michael's thigh over his tight, wet jeans, “I promise the only things I wanna do to you are out of the kindness of my heart.”

And the words, as sweet as they were, were set with the dirtiest tone of voice that had ever been used on Michael and his face started to burn again. Alex grinned and shook his head before kissing him again. 

They stayed there until the rain had stopped and they were warm, sharing kisses. Michael felt special in a way he couldn’t articulate. He knew that, whatever this was, couldn’t be shared. He was an alien, Alex was a human, that was a no-go zone. He couldn’t tell anyone despite the fact that he wanted to scream from the rooftops. He wanted to tell everyone that this guy had chosen  _ him.  _ That he’d wanted  _ him.  _ He was special.

But, eventually, they had to move and Michael’s phone going off signaled that.

It was his mom’s ringtone and he basically dove out of the blanket to get it, ignoring Alex’s low laughter in response as he leaned where the textbook had been pushed to grab it. He answered on the third ring, pressing the phone to his ear and answering with the greeting from his parent’s native tongue like he was taught to. It was a respect thing.

“You said late, but I didn’t know you meant this late,” she said, voice tame, “Where are you?”

“Um, at the library,” he lied, ignoring the way Alex kept rubbing his thigh, “It was raining really hard so we waited at school until it slacked off before heading that way to be safe.”

“Mhm,” she hummed, mildly disbelieving but still choosing to accept the explanation because he’d never lied to her before, “Well, are you almost heading home? Dinner’s soon.”

“Yeah, I was about to leave. I’m sorry I didn’t keep you updated,” he said.

“As long as you’re safe. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Michael waited until he was absolutely sure the call had ended before he dropped his phone, his lips parted. “I just lied to my mom. I  _ never  _ lie to my mom.”

Alex’s fingertips gently reached to the back of his neck, spreading his fingers to cover the most space and slowly guiding him back to being chest to chest. He was going to be the death of him.

“I’m a bad influence,” he hummed matter-of-factly. Michael rested his forehead against Alex's, feeling a little intoxicated at the way Alex was staring at him from this close. There was just something about his eyes. 

“You’re the best bad influence I’ve ever had.”

Alex grinned and tilted his head to kiss him. His tongue parted Michael's lips, reminding him just how warm they could be if they just got close. It had his mind wandering to just how close they could get. Michael didn’t want to leave, but he knew he had to.

“We’ll have to schedule more tutoring sessions in the future,” Alex told him, voice low and almost a little commanding. A whole new layer of chills rose to Michael’s skin, but it had nothing to do with being cold.

“You want to?” Michael asked. It was a packed question.  _ Do you want to do something we have to keep secret, do you want to do something this risky, do you want to do something that could get us both in trouble, do you want to put up with me and all of my bullshit?  _ He didn’t know if Alex knew all of the questions that came alongside his small one, but Alex nodded.

“I want to.”

And that was good enough for him.

**Author's Note:**

> also on my tumblr: spaceskam


End file.
